The Most Important Step Athletes Must Take to Get Better Faster
Every athlete goes to practice, but every athlete does not get better at the same rate from practice. Two athletes could have the same coaches as well as practice the same skills for the same amount of time, but one will get better faster than the other. Why is this?
The easy answer is to say it’s because of a difference in talent. As renowned professor and researcher of psychology Angela Duckworth defines talent:
When I say “talent,” I mean specifically the rate at which a person improves in skill. So, if you’re a really talented basketball player, you improve very quickly when compared to less talented players with equivalent practice and opportunity.
So, it follows that talent is the best answer, right? Well, partially. You can’t ignore the impact of talent. However, you can’t look at this impact as one dimensional either. Instead, you must drill down into the details of how one identifies athletic talent.
Athletes Must Learn That Talent is NOT One Dimensional
When you drill down into athletic talent, you will find that it’s not one dimensional. That is, the source of an athlete’s talent may come from one or more attributes such as speed, strength, technique, strategy, flexibility, conditioning, or grit among other things.
Therefore, if talent means you can improve faster than those who don’t have talent this means that if speed is your talent you will build speed at a faster rate than others. If strength is your talent than you will build your strength at a faster rate than others. If technique is your talent than you will build your technique at a faster rate than others and so on and so forth with strategy, flexibility, conditioning, and grit.
Given that, it follows that if you have a coach that specializes in coaching your talent and your teammates don’t have that same talent, then you will get better faster than your teammates even though you all practice the same skills for the same amount of time.
How to Get Better Faster
If you have made it this far in this article without skipping, then you probably now know the most important step athletes must take to get better faster starts with self-awareness. Athletes must be self-aware of their talents and then act on that self-awareness.
Furthermore, to get better faster athletes must practice their talents more than they practice their non-talents. In addition, athletes must have a coach who specializes in coaching their talents or a coach who at least acknowledges that the athlete has special talents that need nurturing by someone other than that coach. Either way, if you practice your talents, you will get better faster, regardless of what that talent is.
For example, in basketball, height is not the only talent. Indeed, there are short basketball players who make it to the NBA because they are great shooters. In collegiate folkstyle wrestling, strength is not the only talent. Indeed, there are wrestlers who have below average strength who win NCAA and Olympic titles because of their technique. In football, speed and size is not the only talent. Indeed, there are slower, undersized football players who make it to the NFL because of their grit.
In each of these cases, it’s a mistake to put too much weight on the obvious talents in that sport. Unquestionably, there are other non-obvious ways to be great in any given sport when the right person nurtures their unique talents the right way. As the saying goes, if there’s a will, there’s a way. If an athlete wants to get better faster, there is a way for them to get better faster as long as they become self-aware of their talents and then find a coach who specializes in nurturing that talent.